Seeking external reviewers for BC guidelines

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 62, No. 2, March 2020, Page 69 News

BC health care professionals and stakeholders are invited to participate as external reviewers of draft version of BC guidelines. Peer review is a critical component of the guideline development process. New and existing guidelines that have undergone substantive changes are subject to external review to make sure they are clearly written, practical, and free of errors.

The external review involves 1) regular mail sent to a random sample of BC physicians and relevant specialists, and 2) emails to a group of key partners in areas such as pharmacy, laboratory procedures, health authorities, public health, and professional colleges and associations. All feedback received is reviewed by the Guidelines and Protocols Advisory Committee (GPAC) guideline working group. For more information on the external review process, see the GPAC handbook at www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/health/practitioner-pro/bc-guidelines/gpac-handbook/gpachandbook2017.pdf.

Earning continuing professional development credits

Physicians who act as external reviewers for BC guidelines may be eligible to receive credit toward continuing professional development or continuing medical education. For more information, see the Continuing Professional Development Credits page at www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/practitioner-professional-resources/bc-guidelines/continuing-medical-education-cme-credits.

. Seeking external reviewers for BC guidelines. BCMJ, Vol. 62, No. 2, March, 2020, Page(s) 69 - News.


Above is the information needed to cite this article in your paper or presentation. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following citation style, which is the now nearly universally accepted citation style for scientific papers:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

About the ICMJE and citation styles

The ICMJE is small group of editors of general medical journals who first met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which meets annually. The ICMJE created the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals to help authors and editors create and distribute accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies.

An alternate version of ICMJE style is to additionally list the month an issue number, but since most journals use continuous pagination, the shorter form provides sufficient information to locate the reference. The NLM now lists all authors.

BCMJ standard citation style is a slight modification of the ICMJE/NLM style, as follows:

  • Only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al."
  • There is no period after the journal name.
  • Page numbers are not abbreviated.


For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, visit www.icmje.org

BCMJ Guidelines for Authors

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